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PRACTICE TIPS #64: Top Ways to Make Your Practice Happen
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Brent Hugh
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Sep 24, 2001 17:24 PDT
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PRACTICE TIPS is an occasional email newsletter with practical
piano practice tips and ideas, by Brent Hugh
You are receiving PRACTICE TIPS because you subscribed to PRACTICE
TIPS at the Practice Tips Web Page or because you are a student of
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PRACTICE TIPS #64: Top Ways to Make Your Practice Happen
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Here are my own top ways to encourage myself to practice:
1. Make practice a definite part of the daily schedule and stick to the
schedule (see Practice Tip #63).
2. Use a timer. Practice for a certain time interval (I have used intervals
of 20 minutes to 45 minutes). Make an ironclad rule that you do not leave
the piano bench until the timer reaches the time interval you have
chosen. Train your family members/roommates/friends to respect your
"practice time zone" and never interrupt you before you practice interval
is finished.
3. Set definite daily, weekly, hourly, and minute-by-minute goals so that
you have the constant positive reinforcement of successfully accomplishing
a series of small, medium-sized, and large goals.
4. Write down your practice goals--both how long you plan to practice and
what you want to accomplish. When learning a substantial piece, map out
how much you need to learn daily & weekly to learn the piece by a certain date.
5. Write down your daily practice time. The best way is to write down the
length of each practice period as soon as you are finished with it. (There
is much research showing that just keeping a record of your practice
encourages you to practice more.)
6. Use a variety of practice ideas and methods in each practice period, so
that practicing is interesting and stimulating.
7. Think through your priorities. So many things are competing for your
time that piano practice just will not happen unless it is high on your
priority list. Setting a performance date often does wonders in raising
the priority of your piano practice!
8. Do the work it takes (and playing the piano well does take a lot of
work--that is one reason it is so rewarding!), but also take time to
recharge your batteries by attending a great performance, listening to
music you enjoy, and spending some time just "fooling around" at the piano.
Happy practicing!
--Brent
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PRACTICE TIPS is by pianist, teacher, composer, and internet nerd
Brent Hugh. Brent knows about practicing mostly because he *does*
it, and in fact is toddling off to do some of it just about now . . .
Please remember that this tip is but a small brown hair near the
elephant's left eyelid--it's not even close to the whole
elephant that is "how everyone in the whole world should practice
the piano".
Practice Tips Archives (updated about once a month):
http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/practicetips/
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+++++++++++++++++ Brent Hugh / bhu-@mwsc.edu +++++++++++++++++
+ Missouri Western St College Dept of Music, St. Joseph, MO +
+ Piano Home Page : http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh +
+ Music IQ Songs : http://mp3.com/MusicIQ +
++ Music of the Human Genome : http://mp3.com/brent_d_hugh ++++
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